When the Face of the Company Gets Canned

A successful spokesperson personifies a brand. So what happens when the spokesperson and the brand part ways?

That’s the awkward dilemma now facing the top brass at Men’s Wearhouse Inc., the clothing chain that ousted founder and executive chairman George Zimmer Wednesday under still-unclear circumstances. Zimmer was perhaps best known for concluding the chain’s commercials with his deep-voiced signature line, “You’re going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.”

Bloomberg News

George Zimmer, founder and former executive chairman of Men’s Wearhouse Inc.

It can be tremendously useful for a company to align itself with a single individual, as that can provide a “coherent identity,” says Michel Pham, a marketing professor at Columbia Business School. He cites Richard Branson, who unifies Virgin’s wide-ranging business lines and personifies the cheeky brand.

Having a spokes-executive is “a very cheap way of building a corporate brand,” says Gary Davies, a strategy professor at Manchester Business School.

But such reliance on one person carries major risks, too.

Consider Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia: Martha Stewart the person ran into legal trouble in 2003, and her eponymous namesake company suffered. Or Livestrong Foundation, which has struggled to distance itself from founder Lance Armstrong after the cyclist admitted to doping. “The whole brand itself was linked to an individual,” he says. “When that individual fails, it’s in complete violation of what the brand is supposed to be.”

A messy divorce between a brand and its ambassador can do more than just sour a few customers or elicit bad headlines. Remember Crazy Eddie, the electronics retailer? The company didn’t last long after namesake co-founder Eddie Antar was charged with securities fraud, even when new ownership came in to pick up the pieces. (An actor, and not Antar, starred in the company’s commercials.)

It’s easy enough for a company to cancel a contract with a celebrity endorser, but it can be tougher to unwind a relationship when the endorsement comes from someone who’s deeply tied to day-to-day operations (say as a CEO).

There’s good news for Men’s Wearhouse: While Zimmer was the face (and voice) of his brand, he wasn’t as central to the company’s identity as, say, Stewart or Steve Jobs. And, according to a securities filing, the company could continue to use his likeness in ads if they so choose.

“He was slightly more expendable,” Pham says.

Correction

An earlier version of this post misspelled Michel Pham’s last name in the final paragraph. The post has been updated with the correct spelling.

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